Kimchi Noodles

I haven't had instant noodles for ages and this time I made an effort to 'dress up' my normally modest instant noodles. It's also incredibly easy to make and would make a perfect supper or a meal for one of those days when you just can't be bothered cooking.
Ingredients:
1 hard-boiled egg (sliced in half)
3 prawns
3 cherry tomatoes
3 shitake mushrooms
2 spring onions (finely chopped the green parts)
3 tbsp frozen pea
a handful of chopped white cabbage
napa cabbage kimchi (as much as you can take :D)
1 packet of kimchi flavour instant noodles

Method:
1. Boil water, add the seasoning from the noodle packet.
2. Add prawns and boil for 3 mins
3. Add mushrooms, peas and white cabbage and continue cooking for another 5 mins.
4. Add tomatoes and spring onions.
5. Add noodles and continue cooking for 3-4 mins
6. Top with boiled egg and kimchi
7. Devour :D

This dish somehow reminded me a lot of the time when I first left home for college. Admittedly instant noodles are not good for you but it's an integral part of being an Asian :D

Victoria sponge

Ingredients
110g/4oz butter or margarine
110g/4oz caster sugar
2 medium eggs
110g/4oz self raising flour

Method
1. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Line 2x18cm/7in cake tins with baking parchment
3. Use a hand mixer to cream the butter and the sugar together until pale.
4. Beat in the eggs.
5. Sift over the flour and fold in using a large metal spoon. The mixture should be of a dropping consistency - if it isn't, add a little milk.
6. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool.
9. Sandwich the cakes together with jam, lemon curd or whipped cream and berries or just enjoy on its own.

TIP: use a pinch of baking powder as well to help the cake rise.
ENJOY

Ayam Masak Merah

Special thanks to Melting Wok for the amazing Spicy honey chicken recipe
Minor alteration include:

1. I marinated the chicken with 2 tbsp of fish sauce + turmeric instead of salt and turmeric. I believe the fish sauce goes into the chicken better than salt (be careful though because fish sauce is quite salty itself)
2. I deep fried the chicken instead of pan frying it. It takes a bit more effort because we haven't got a deep fryer at home so we had to use the wok. However, the chicken was crispy and very very tasty.

Except for those above changes, everything else was done in the same way. The hubby was more than impressed with the dish. Admittedly I've got to give him credit for helping me a lot in doing this dish.

Here's the end result. The novice cook proudly presents:

Spicy Honey Chicken served with sweet cabbage in oyster sauce and a bit of kimchi

French cuisine

First of all I'd like to thank my personal chef hubby for sharing with us this great idea. He's passionate about French cuisine and is capable of making various elaborate dishes that I can't help falling in love with. Maybe it was fate that a hopeless cook like myself ended up with a naturally talented cook like the hubby :D

The main course is called Co^te de porc Normande, which in my language, translates roughly as pork stew in cider and apple.

The potatoes accompanied the dish is called Pommes Duchess; which I believe, is basically mashed potatoes + 2 egg yolks + cream and then baked in the oven for 15 minutes.
This dish is similar, yet very different from chicken in cider. The sweet apples go perfectly well with pork and since the pork was cooked slowly in the oven, herbs and spices have more of a chance to incorporate into the meat.
Yum yum, I love the weekend when I can eat 'restaurant food' at home.
P.S: recipes will be posted if requested.

Blanketed Rice

This bizarre dish is a cross between teczcape 's Tom Yum Rice ...

...and My Korean Kitchen's omelette rice


The delightful result looked like this:
a> WITHOUT THE OMELETTE

b> WITH THE OMELETTE

The only exceptions with the Tom Yum rice were that beans were replaced by cauliflowers, prawns were chopped instead and chopped shitake mushrooms and tomatoes were also included.
This dish is filling enough to make a substantial meal on its own. Thanks to teczcape and My Korean Kitchen for giving us such nice ideas.

My first (and probably last) attempt to do kimbap

Now if someone out there is kind enough, I'd like to know what is the main difference between sushi and kimbap? I got this recipe off My Korean Kitchen and altered it a bit so that I didn't have to buy anything except for seaweed wraps. The seaweed wraps were on offer for 87p so I couldn't resist anyway :D.
I'd always thought that sushi/kimbap is pretty bland and I thought maybe if I tried to make it at home it would somehow taste better than the store-bought version. I was right in a way. The kimbap I made definitely had a fresher taste than the ones I used to buy from the supermarket. The only thing is, it is still tasteless. It's not like I don't like Korean food because I couldn't live without kimchi and gochujang. I guess I'm more into the hot and spicy side of Korean food.
Mmmm, even though I didn't like it in the end, at least I tried making it once.

Hainanese Steamed Chicken with Hainanese chilli ginger sauce

Wandering Chopsticks' post on her great grand-father death anniversary dinner made my mouth water over the picture of Hainanese Chicken. Admittedly I didn't have a whole chicken to follow the proper cooking process (I eat on my own so it'll be too wasteful to attempt cooking the whole chicken). So I cheated by steaming the chicken thigh and served it with Hainanese chilli ginger sauce. It still tastes pretty awesome :D.
I also did a simple canh (watery soup) with ginger, cabbage and shitake mushrooms, which is my mum's favorite food of all time.














It's super duper easy to make- you only need to fry lightly some chopped ginger, then pour in chicken stock and shitake mushrooms, season with fish sauce and simmer for 25 minutes, then the chopped cabbage is thrown in and simmered for another 10 minutes. Voila.
To be honest my mum's version of this dish is much better since she also uses dried shrimps and pork meatballs. Oh well, I still enjoyed it immensely though so it doesn't really matter.